The Fire in My Eyes
by BeingWhoIWishIWas
Summary: A new Avenger on the team? Well, maybe. She's recently re-orphaned and extremely powerful and whoever killed her father is in some huge trouble, as if taking on her wasn't hard enough, the Avengers have a grudge with this guy too. Bad guys beware.
1. go team?

I let out a long breath, I felt like I'd been holding it for years. I opened my eyes only to squeeze them shut again. Too much light, too fast.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I didn't realize you were awake!" A mans voice said to me.

My eyelids felt cooler and became darker, so I assumed the light was moved away. I opened my eyes more cautiously this time.

The man that had spoken was in his early thirties, possibly late twenties, with short brown hair and a stressed and tired looking face. I'd seen that face on billboards and on TV. What the crap was Tony Stark doing here? Where is here anyway?

He must have noticed my minor freak-out, because he said "Chill, you got pretty banged up two days ago, remember the giant robot thing? Saving the Avengers butts?" He said the last one with a slight grimace.

I blinked, and replied, "Right, so does everybody know my, you know, secret identity or whatever you experienced superheroes call it?"

Stark smiled, "No, you're ok."

"So where am I exactly?"

"The Mansion, downtown Manhattan. Do you remember anything?"

"Yeah, big green robot with way too many arms and way too many lasers."

Tony Stark laughed, "Tell me about it! My suit was almost blown to bits at least three times!"

I nodded, yeah. I remember the battle; it's just the getting from there to here that I'm struggling with.

A guy in a lab coat (probably Gi-ant man) and what must be the Wasp came into the very white room. Wasp shocked him and he looked up, towards me,

"Oh, you're Amethyst, right? The shape shifter?" I nodded and he continued, "I'm Hank, this is Wasp, you've met Tony…"

"Yeah," I said addressing all three Avengers "So how exactly did I get hurt?"

Wasp answered "It looks like a partially healed wound opened up in the middle of the battle, and you had a couple new ones, you lost so much blood you couldn't even feel the pain any more, then you blacked out. So, what was that previous wound from?"

I shrugged, "I can't remember, I get cuts and bruises a lot, so I don't really keep track of to who I owe what, plenty of broken bones get disregarded too, see, I'm not exactly normal…"

Three Avengers laughed, two more walked in. The one with long blond hair must be Thor, The guy in purple must be the Wacondian King, Panther.

Blondie stared at me haughtily, while the Panther looked curious.

"Hello, child, are you well once more?" Blondie asked me.

I raise an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm feeling much better, thanks for asking." I say slightly haughtily myself.

Blondie huffs and narrows his eyes. Panther quickly steps in.

"You are obviously very skillful in battle, may I ask who you were taught by?"

I answer him quietly, "My Dad. He died a few months ago. He was a secret agent, so he taught me a lot, but I'm a bit hard to train because of my more uncommon abilities."

Panther nodded "Yes, I understand. My condolences for your loss of your adoptive father."

I started at that statement, "How did you know I'm adopted?"

"Your father was the owner of a big tech company, right? You're Amethyst Strikesilver, James Strikesilver left his company to you, right?"

I nod. That's the gist of it. Stark nods as well, "James Strikesilver? I did business with him a lot, a good man, didn't play dirty either, always fair, but he was quite the negotiator."

I smiled faintly, "Yeah, sounds like him."

"I heard you were quite the inventor, even designed a suit similar to mine, except without the life-threatening part." He grins.

"Yeah, I always admired your tech. Not you, just your tech, what did you say earlier? You play dirty, or at least you did."

Stark looks grim, "Well, yes, I did. Not anymore."

Wasp enlarges herself, "Anyway, we wanted to ask you something. You did very well in that battle, and we would like you to train with us for a while. We could even help you get your company up and running again, Tony and Hank could even help perfect tech if you'd like."

Two more Avengers walk in, the former S.H.E.I.L.D operatives, Hawkeye and the Black Widow.

Black Widow looks at me, "Hey, kid. They told you yet?" I think about this for a moment. Black Widow doesn't wait for my answer.

She asks again, "You want in?"She pauses and looks at me, " I can see fire in your eyes, kid." She turns to her teammates "She's in. I'm sure of it."


	2. Alarm Take One

I just blink. _Right…like I want to be around a bunch of adults in colorful bodysuits. I mean really…what do I have to gain from this? Nothing! But they seem to have known my father. Besides, if I don't like it, I'll leave._

Some sort of alarm starts pounding through the building, and gradually works it's way through my head. No one else even changes his or her facial expression. Wasp points to a closet

"Get changed! We're heading out in ten!"

I nod, and start heading for the closet, my side hurts like crazy, but I can focus enough to block the pain out, the alarm is another story though and the last thing I need is to be injured and unable to hear in a fight. I shape shift my ears off, at least until I get out of the building, that way I'll be able to hear when it counts.

I quickly change into the black outfit, leggings and a long shirt. There's a blue violet stripe on the bottom of the shirt and at the end of the three-quarter sleeves. Better than I thought it would be.

My vision goes a little hazy as I make my way towards the jet, going off of my memories, little snippets from when I opened my eyes momentarily in a half awake state then drifted back into unconsciousness. Not a lot to go off, and I'm not in a great state overall anyway. Oh well.

I don't hear him come up behind me for obvious reasons. Blondie puts a hand on my shoulder and steers me through the mansion. I look up at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised so high it's nearly touching my golden hair, which is pulled back in a messy ponytail.

He raises both eyebrows. Then tilts his head towards the door and then rushes back into that maze of a building, probably because that hammer of his isn't at his belt.

I open the door he showed me and head down a flight of stairs to the landing platform, where the roof is just starting to open up. Hawkeye waves to show that we're about to leave. Thor come in behind me, his engraved hammer in one hand, wielding it as though it weighed no more than a feather. We all pile into the jet. I take the navigator's seat, Stark looks surprised, then I remember I don't have ears. I shift them back and shrug.

"Kid, you sure you can navigate fast enough for this jet?"

I let out something similar to a snort. " 'Course, I've flown and navigated every jet my dad ever built, so I'm sure I can handle it."

He shrugs. "But if you can't, hand it over to Panther, ok? No stupid teenage pride, got that?"

I nod and make sure I look sincere. _Ha! This is going to be so much fun! A Piece of cake! I've never seen a jet I can't fly, and he thinks navigating could_


	3. The battle of Central Park

We land on a nearby building, I'm sure the owners are very happy, and head towards trouble. By that I mean we head down the building, fast. The stairs are out of the question. Even elevators aren't fast enough, finally, some fun.

Panther slides down the side of the building, laser claws unsheathed and he looks fearsome. Hawkeye and Widow clip in a rope and slide down, Captain America follows them down, no harness required. Stark and Wasp race to the bottom, breakneck speed, flying faster than some planes. The hulk just jumps, a large 'Boom!' follows shortly after. Blondie is looking at me funny.

"You need something?" I ask him.

"How are you going to get down?"

I laugh. "Watch." I reply simply.

I shape shift into Blondie himself. He gawks.

"Oh, please. You're not that handsome." I say, rolling my eyes as I fly down into the action.

Thor follows me down, holding onto Gi-ant man's arms with one hand, hammer in the other, when I land I shift back into me, ready to kick butt.

It was chaos, a bunch of huge robots, shooting gray lasers that slice through metal like it's butter. In short Ironman's wearing down his own shields fast, and there other's look like they're playing a dodge ball game with nothing to throwback, all dodge, no attack. Well, the Hulk is just kind of in a stand still, the laser is in a continuous flow at him, desperately trying to keep him out of action.

The robot has no blind spots. It's tied, and a laser gun can pop out from under any of theses tiles, the design is ingenious. Crap.

I find myself dodging lasers with everyone else, but notice some people in a corner, cowering, to afraid to make a run for it. Unfortunately, one of the robots notices the people the same time as me.

I shift into the suit I designed; the one Stark was talking to me about earlier. This suit is made of Iron, but thickly coated in the same material as Captain America's shield (I found some of that metal about 15 miles down in the earth, don't ask me how it got it, it would take forever to tell.) and the shield seems to be holding up well, so I figure that I'll survive.

I rush at the robot in my new form, crashing into its side, well, through it would be more accurate.

I'm inside the robot; there are about fifteen laser guns inside the hollow beast, all of them slipping trough the tiles at their target, in and out. I quickly shoot them down, easy. People saved, check. The top has a trapdoor that must lead into the head, the control center of the bot. Excellent. I open the trapdoor, there's nothing but a simple lock that I had to pick. My side is killing me, warm, stick blood is making my clothes stick to the suit.

The door swings open, narrowly missing me.

"_Hey! Anybody picking this up?" _ I say, hoping someone can hear me in his or her earpiece.

"_Yeah. You ok?"_ Captain America responds.

"_Perfect actually. Target just under the guns when they pop out. Try to get inside the bot, then you can take out the guns, there's a trapdoor that leads to the control center, you can take out the bad guy easily." _

"_Excellent. Good work." _ Captain says with a small laugh.

I spring up trough the door; a middle aged guy is raging at the controls, completely oblivious to my sudden appearance. I sigh. No dramatic flair today. Did I just think that? Sheesh, I'm tuning into such a priss! What next? Tantrums? I shake my head. And walk up to the guy. I put my hand on the chair and lean down to his height and shift off my headgear so I can speak.

"The machine won't fire because I blew up the laser guns." I say.

The very flustered man suddenly looks very scared.

"Now, you are going to stand up and follow me." I tell the guy, as I hit the self-destruct button. Why do people even put these in bots anymore? So useless, unless of course you happen to be the hero, then it's extremely helpful.

I begin down into the beast again, He's frozen. I raise an eyebrow, he shakes his head I sigh.

I smile cryptically, "_Ten, Nine…_"

The guy gulps nervously and begins to follow me.

We're about five yards from the bot when it's blown up. I look around to see that the Avengers have taken down all seven bots, but the Hulk is unconscious, Wasp can't walk and everyone has a few injuries. The bad guys are tied up buy a police van. The one I caught is trying to sneak away before he can join the others.

I laugh, catching him by the arm and steering him towards the others, smiling mischievously. He doesn't struggle.

I meet with the other Avengers. We head back to the building where the jet is, exhausted and hurt, I don't shift out of my suit yet. I don't want to know how bad it is until I can just pass out or something.

The team is bloodied and there is no celebration, we know nothing about the bots. Questions buzz through my head, ideas flitting in and out of my mind like bees coming to and from their hive. Who built them? Why Central Park? Why didn't the lasers work on Captain America's shield or my suit?

We take the elevator this time.


	4. Them

We fly back to the mansion, at a slower pace than we came, Ironman's not fit to fly so Gi-ant man is flying (after he shrunk down to his more normal size of just a slightly taller than average man.)

We immediately get to work, the infirmary is crowded, Captain America is the only one who didn't get seriously hurt, so research and analyzing work will have to wait, considering that Capt.'s still a little unfamiliar with modern computers, trying to use Jarvis for analyzing samples would be very frustrating. Which is ok; because he's the soldier, not the scientist, (just like Thor's not into science much either). Leave the science to the rest of us.

Capt.'s sulking just outside of the infirmary.

_It's not your fault. _

He looks up startled, glancing around suspiciously.

I roll my eyes. _ Relax, It's just Amethyst. '_

_YOU'VE GOT TELEPATHY? _He says squeezing his eyes shut in concentration as the words come blasting into my head.

_Yeah, and you don't need to try so hard, it hurts my head. Just think about it like you would something you were just about to say then connect to the mind link._

I see him through the window taking a deep breath.

_WHAT THE CRAP IS THE MIND LINK? _He screams into my head again.

_It's the little glow at the corner of your eyes when you close them, you can connect once every time I connect to your mind. The others are too injured to connect for the first time, and you're just sitting there using up your self-pity ration for the entire week so I figured I'd start with you._

_Ok, did I do it?_

_Yeah, good job! It'll be easier next time you find the link._

_This is so weird! Why didn't you link everyone up during the battle?_

_I was busy! And some of them might not be able to connect with the link as easily as you did. And with my injury I simply couldn't handle a bunch of voices screaming in my head. _

_Oh, okay. Will you link everyone up once they're well enough too?_

_Of course, but Thor is probably going to freak, and I have no idea how the Hulk will react. Hopefully once everyone is linked, anyone should be able to activate the connection, that way if I'm out, then you can still communicate without traceable earpieces._

_Good. _Captain replies.

_I'm going to sleep now, you should probably go check on Wasp, She's probably itching for someone to talk to._

_All right._

I sleep for several hours only to awaken just in time to miss dinner. I look around.

I take one deep breath and grip a shelf sticking out low on the wall for support.

My legs slide out of the bed, I'm still in uniform, and straighten up as if cautiously put my feet on the floor and shift some of my weight on to them. Pain roars through me, my side is throbbing desperately. I grit my teeth and pull myself all the way up. My head is spinning, but I force myself to stay up with my eyes open. I breathe slowly, forcing my heart to pump at a less break-neck pace. My knees start to buckle as I close my eyes. My arms fumble for anything to grab on to.

Someone caught me. I blink a little bit clearing my vision. Tony Stark is on crutches, but still managing to plop me on my bed.

He scowls at me. "What on earth were you trying to do? You're injured way to bad for that!"

I glare at him. "My dad taught me it was important to know my own limits."

Stark faltered for a moment but then said, "Well I doubt he meant doing something like that!"

I shrug and cross my arms despite the pain,

And then a tear rolls down my cheek.

"They killed him, you know." I say quietly.

"Yeah, I figured as much."

"They're going to die for that."

"I figured that too."

"So once I'm better I'm going after them."

"Wrong." Stark says, eyes alight, "We're going after them. All of us."


	5. up and running again

My next week passes by annoyingly fast. Mainly because I've been sleeping, then hurting, then sleeping some more. In short when I'm awake, I'm bored or my head is throbbing, sometimes both. Lovely, right?

When I finally can walk around again I immediately begin to train again. My regular routine that I learned from my dad; stretch, run, punch something, kick something, kick and punch something, run and spar against an opponent who's better than you.

You've got to spar against someone better than you because that's the only way you can ever get better, and you have a stronger desire to beat him or her in to a pulp, if you know what I mean.

I get into a small gym with a padded floor on the right wing of the mansion. I stretch and than I head out side to jog a quick mile around the city. It takes me about seven minutes and afterwards my side and legs are killing me. I decide to jog another half mile, just to push my limits.

Then I head back inside to the same gym I stretched in. A punching bag was already hanging from the ceiling so I started on it, punching it from different angles, warming up my hands and arms. After a while I started kicking, front, roundhouse and then high. My high kick brought my heel down on top of the suspended bag, which was a bit taller than me. Not bad for an out of practice girl, who still has to stay in the infirmary? (Yeah, I'm not exactly supposed to be practicing, but I figure if I don't know my own limits, than I might as well go into a fight blind.) I start punching again, then kicking and then I get very, very surprised.

"Not bad for a kid who's supposed to be half-dead."

I whirled around, automatically crouching in a ready position on the balls of me feet.

"Relax kid, it's just me." Hawkeye says his hands up, chuckling.

I straighten up and cross my arms. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" He says lowering his gym bag. I notice for the first time that he's in athletic wear and that this old abandoned looking gym might simply be well worn.

I shrug. He raises an eyebrow.

"I doubt that punching bag is a good opponent, you want to spar real fast?"

I think about this for a moment but he interrupts my thoughts.

"I've trained with S.H.E.I.L.D for two years, and was an active agent for over five years. I'm certain I'm better than you."

I raise an eyebrow, and say innocently, "Yeah? You sure you can take on a 16-year-old girl?"

He grinned. "With some luck."

"All right let's go."

I get back into my crouch, on the balls of my feet ready to spring. Hawkeye gets into a similar position.

He nods and then springs at me, slipping behind me for a quick kick at my upper back. I duck into a crouching position where I'm sitting on my heel with one leg out. I swing this leg into the opposite direction Hawkeye slid. He jumps over it, but clips it with his toe, making him stumble for a fraction of a second, just enough time for me to get back on my feet and just as he turns around I hit his shoulder, hard.

He doesn't even wince. He kicks my legs out from under me and I land on my butt. I scowl up at him, holding my side.

He relaxes and rushes to me. " You ok, kid?"

I grimace, "Yeah, I think so…" I jump up on my feet and kick his shoulder. Now, he's on his butt.

I grin down at him, "I can't believe you fell for that."

He laughs, "Yeah, you got me kid. But your side is bleeding so I thought…"

I look down at my side surprised. He's up on his feet and I barely manage to dance out of the way.

He smiles, "Your good kid! Light on your feet."

I nod and grin, "Hey, you know. I've only been training my whole life to face bigger opponents."

He nods as he takes a swipe at my face, which I dodge.

"All right, I'm done." Hawkeye says after a about an hour of punching, kicking, tripping, tricking and generally sweating.

"Yeah, me too."

He smiles "you're no bad kid. Giving me a run for my money."

Stark's voice comes on the screen by the door. "Hey, S.H.E.I.L.D has called a meeting with us about our new member. Be ready in five. Everybody copy?"

I raise an eye at the ceiling. And say, "Yeah, I got that Stark."

Hawkeye says to the ceiling, "All right."

"Why do they care if I'm on the team?"

Hawkeye shrugs, "They might want to try to recruit you as an agent, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Great. Just what I need, more idiots after my power, trying to manipulate me like I'm some untried kid."


	6. Secrets

Me and Hawkeye head up to the main room, the team was there along with Nick Fury. That dude just give me a bad vibe, I mean, guys in their forties with an eye patch and a trench coat generally are not good people.

Nick Fury glares at me through one eye, "Huh, you're just a kid. What the crap do you think you're doing on the Avengers team?"

"Oh, you know beating up thugs, shutting down evil robots, just the basics." I say my voice dripping with annoyance. Old guys that give me the Gecko Stare of Annoyance for no reason get drenched with their own medicine.

He narrows his eye and frowns. "Do you even know who I am? Kid?"

Oh, he added that last bit for good measure. Idiot.

"Nick Fury, Director of SHEILD, trained assassin, expert intelligence extractor. In short, you're an old guy with a nasty temper. Do you know who I am?" I manage to say with a straight face.

He turns red, "You're Amethyst Strikesilver, daughter of the tech genius James Strikesilver, trained assassin, spy, previous SHEILD operative in training," He says, watching the reaction, "You're a gutsy 16-year-old with a boat load of secrets that I need to know."

I raise an eyebrow, " Secrets that you're not getting."

"yet." He says.

I laugh mercilessly, "Yeah? We'll see, eye patch. Because I'm harder to break than any one you've ever known."

"Why are you so sure?"

"I had to watch my father die helplessly. I will not watch give away his secrets, his entire life's work to a strange old man just because he says so. You say "Jump" I say, "Go die." Understand?"

Nick Fury is steaming now, face red.

"You don't know what that information can do! You're a helpless little kid who is desperately trying to bring her father back!" He stands up, "Your father won't comeback for his secrets! But I will!"

And with that he's gone.

Leaving me to the stares of the Avengers.

"I've never seen Fury so ticked off, how'd a 16-year-old do that?" Stark said as he grinned wickedly into space.

"You're a former SHEILD trainee?" Black Widow asks.

I shrug. "Yeah, It was a while ago though. I didn't like it much though, I just quit. Too many betrayals, too many idiots thinking they know best."

"Huh, I hear you on that one." Black Widow agrees.

Oddly enough nobody pestered me about my secrets. I guess they all have secrets of their own. They might actually understand.

A week after that meeting with Nick Fury, Stark located Them.

I guess it's time.


	7. Bring it on

I grabbed some supplies, just the basic stuff. Flashlight, knives, poison, etc. Then I put on my usual uniform, black with purple. I slung my packed up bag over my shoulder and headed to the main room.

Stark, Captain America, and Thor were not there, but everyone else was. I walked over to Panther and said, "Where is everyone?"

"Either prepping the jet or moseying around." He answered.

"All righty then, get any specifics from Stark?"

"Nope, well….He was mumbling something about San Francisco. But I'm not entirely sure that's where we're going."

Gi-Ant man came over to us, followed by Hawkeye, "Yeah, Stark said that this morning."

"Um-hm." Hawkeye agreed, apparently lost in thought.

I rolled my eyes, "Anyone have any ideas on identities yet? Or are they just a bunch of middle aged psychopaths that enjoy killing people while in Halloween costumes?"

Hawkeye raised an eyebrow, "No idea, and as far as we know those Halloween costumes could have high-tech weapons in them. Stark thinks they might be the ones who tried to blow up Central Park."

"They didn't try to blow it up!" Stark said irritably, "They were trying to break into the Strikesilver building!"

I felt my eyes widen, "That makes sense, me and my dad we're working on new tech research in that building, we got new shipments of material all the time, they could have been trying to get the samples!"

"What samples?" Panther asks.

"Small amounts of reactive minerals…" I said, and then I realized something, "and of the metal used to make Captain America's shield and my tech! The only thing it can't cut through so far!"

"They would need to analyze the metal in order to improve on the weaponry, so it can cut through it!" Stark grinned.

"What does all this have to do with San Francisco?" The Black Widow pondered.

"We'll find out when we get there." Wasp said determinedly.

I guess I'm not the only one with a grudge against the psychopaths.

We board the jet, Stark at the main control panel, Panther at Navigations, Blondie flying beside the jet doing…. well I'm not sure exactly. Everyone else is just preparing. Wasp has a very uncharacteristic scowl on her face. Gi-Ant man keeps glancing over at her, obviously concerned.

Come to think of it, everyone is acting strange; determination is set in their faces, none of the usual grins and jokes. Not that I don't understand it. The people who managed to tick of every one of us is in for the fight of their life. I can't help but wonder what happened to the others, and why they didn't go after them before.

I took a deep breath, "Ok, you guys know my story. What's yours?" I say addressing no one in particular.

No one answered.

"They made SHEILD betray me." The Black Widow says.

Not very detailed, but then again, mine wasn't either.

"They destroyed my company's reputation. It took me years to rebuild." Stark says after a long silence.

"They hired a tyrant to take my throne." Panther said in a low voice.

"But why target Amethyst? I get the Avengers but why some random teen?" Hawkeye asks.

"But, what happened to Stark and Panther and me happened before we were Avengers." Black Widow says, "If anything, It pushed us towards the Avengers. Stark to build up his reputation, me for anger at SHEILD, Panther for debt."

Panther scowled.

"Only at first, you've more than repaid that debt!" Stark said hurriedly.

Panther nodded, still silent, annoyance radiating off of him.

"Someone put a lot of planning into it, they must have had a motive other than hurting us individually."

"What if they want to take us out all at once?" I suggested after a moment of thought.

"We wouldn't be a threat to whatever they were planning."

"Which they could do because we're a team."

Suddenly there was a lack of noise. An eerie silence stretched for less then a minute before the realization started to dawn on us. Engines.

I rushed out of my seat to a small window, just in time to see Blondie's body hurtling towards the ground. Then I realized one more thing, we were flying over Kansas, there was no one around for several miles, and we were surely going to follow Blondie down.

A screeching sound filled the jet. Another engine down, just more messily this time. We were all on our feet except Stark, (someone had to attempt to save the jet.) The former spies to position on the ceiling and walls, the rest of us followed in suit. I decided I liked the fighting style of that cartoon character, Wolverine. I copied the deadly razors, and Black Widow looked surprised, then grinned wickedly with approval.

Bring it on.


	8. Spies

A figure in a hooded cloak followed by two others was at the end of the hallway. I'm looking at the reflection in the glass, I just hope the bad guys don't have to same idea; it's too late to move. I glance at Stark, it's lucky the main controls are blocked off, or we'd be sunk from the start.

"Where are they? Ambush isn't a standard attack pattern for the objectives." One of the two others whispered.

The figure in front merely pulled out a knife, glinting slightly with a greenish tint. I'd bet my life that's poison that's glinting green.

I ball my fists, razors extended; I'm on my toes, tensed and ready to fight. I take a quiet breath.

They must be spies; only spies study their target's attack patterns so precisely, only spies could find out the Avengers usual attack patterns, we change it regularly to make sure this doesn't happen. Hawkeye and Widow and I all use more discreet methods of attack, but as a team we tend to attack head on. They know this so they are cautious, but not fully prepared.

The spies advance closer, searching each nook and crannies as they slowly make their way towards us. They walk into the main area.

They walk right past my glinting razors and me. Right under Hawkeye, to be exact.

Perfect.

Then one of them turned around.

Crap.

The Spy gasped then lunged. I dove to the side Panther dove to the opposite side. The jet became alive again, my claws screeched across the metal floor as I dodged the attacking spy, only to run right into another one. Not my day.

He grips my arms, keeping my claws only inches away from the face under the hood. He's stronger than me, but not by much. I twist my wrists around in a sudden jerk, tearing into his shoulder. He screams and lets go, I drop to the floor, my hands supporting my body weight as I swing my legs towards the man, kicking his legs out from under him. His hood slips off, he looks pretty young, he can't be much older than me, and he actually looks vaguely familiar. I shake off the thought and focus on the task at hand, taking this kid down.

Something hits me hard in the center of my back. Reinforcements. I groan inwardly.

I stumble a little from the impact but whirl around to face my two opponents. They come at me from two angles, perfectly in sync. I duck one and connect with the other. I'm getting annoyed now. I ball my fist once more and attack the de-hooded one's weak side, the one I shredded earlier. I Kick his shoulder hard, and use the push to attack the other one. I turn quickly in mid air, my feet smash into the hooded guys chest, knocking him to the floor. He reacts quickly, grabbing my leg and pulling me down. I lash out with my claws randomly, the man howls in pain. I jump up taking a quick swipe at the guy my age. He barely dodges the blow, he sends a punch at my head, green eyes flashing. _Huh, not may guys have eyes that green, they're really amazing…What the crap am I thinking? This is ridiculous!_

A blush rises to my cheeks as I shake his eyes out of my head.

The other guy is now de-hooded (is de-hooded even a word?) ugh. He looks a bit older than the other one, and he actually looks pretty similar to the other one, but with significantly less striking hazel eyes.

How on earth do they fight in such long cloaks? It's looks SO annoying…

Both guys are beginning to close in on me, suddenly the jet jerks upward. (Someone must have found Stark.) And I'm knocked into Green-Eyes (again! ugh!) and we fall backwards, unfortunately for him, one of my razors slices across his cheek. I do a front roll and push off f his shoulders, the jet jerks downward and I hit the ceiling. When I'm back on the floor my entire body aches, my shoulders particularly. Out of nowhere Green-Eyes pulls out a gun. But it's definitely not a normal one. I've stared down the barrels of several guns and not one of them has glowed yellow. Well, actually one has. Something my father was working on. It's supposed to temporarily subdue unnatural or alien powers. Powers like mine. My eyes widen. Only two people are allowed access to that lab. Director Fury and me. I helped invent it actually, with my dad. It was for use by the Avengers initiative only. SHEILD was the funding only, they wanted it for the Avengers, or so we were told. I dawned on me; what if there was a mole in SHEILD? I began to tremble; I was so full of rage.

I began to shift. My eyes glowed violet and I became my own monster. The thing no one knew I was. I couldn't contain it. I stood hunched over, even then I was over seven feet tall, still trembling. I was in my potential form (Basically if I get any angrier or desperate I will change into my true form) I was wearing a violet tunic with leggings, not so different from my uniform, and my skin glowed a soft blue. My hair was whisked around like I was underwater. I clenched my fist and swung at my attackers with the dual swords (twin swords, one blade in each hand, yes, I am ambidextrous) that had been strapped to my back along with my quiver and bow. My potential form was known as Huntress. You can imagine why.

The dual sword stopped short of Green-Eyes and his friend, I was not a killer. I whisked the blade around and drew to my full height (10ft 3in.) and hit them over the head with the hilt of my blade along with another hooded figure near me.

One of the opponents called out, "Director!"


	9. The captives

Director? As in Fury? The hooded spies quickly retreated from earth-bound jet. Huh, kind of forgot about Blondie (If it were anyone else but him, I'd be worried, but the dude's a god, He's been through worse) and the fact that we were, oh, you know, FALLING SO FAST THE FRONT OF THE JET CAUGHT ON FIRE!

I take several deep breaths and revert back to my familiar form (Human known as Amethyst Strikesilver) and tie up the spies I knocked out. Green-Eyes, his friend and a random spy Panther was fighting. I sigh. Why hadn't I reacted to the fleeing spies! I could have caught them! Ugh.

Whoops, forgot about the jet again. I head to the back of the jet, where the spies left the top hatch open. Such manners. I climbed the ladder and shifted my skin into my suit. I heard a yell from below, "Panther, take the controls, I'm going to help the kid!"

A few moments later Stark appears at the bottom of the ladder, with half of his suit on and working on the rest, "Meet you up front, 'Kay?" I yell over the rushing wind.

He nods and I let Gravity pull me to the front of the plane. I braced my arms against the nose of the plane, only inches from tearing through my mid-section. That seems like a painful way to go, now doesn't it? I put all energy to the thrusters under my feet. I grit my teeth as the nose inches closer to me. _Where the crap is Stark? _I try my communications, they're all jacked up by the speed, _I'd have to be closer to him to talk to him._

The metal scrapes my suit. I take a deep breath, then suck in my gut, like it'll actually help. I glare at the nose of the plane, then at Panther at the window. He's desperately trying to slow the plane down. Dr. Banner and Captain are looking at me like I've grown two heads (I've actually tried that before, it gave me a headache trying to figure out which one my brain was actually in.) and Hawkeye's at navigations, Black Widow's just pacing. Such help they are. I'm in a majorly bad mood, I was fine this morning! Stupid teenage mood swings, I've been in situations worse than this and actually was at least pumped up, and right now I'm just annoyed with Stark.

Ugh. I point my feet at the nose, which is still scraping the metal of my suit. I fly a bit ahead of it and fly around to the other side of the plane. There he is! He's doing exactly what I was at the nose with the wing. I yell into my suit, "Stark! Tear up the wings! Mess up the aerodynamics, it'll slow the plane down some at least!"

"Right, I'll get this side!"

I fly over to the other side cautiously, and start tearing up the wings and side, letting all the pieces stick straight up. They catch on fire. What the crap? The world hates me today, doesn't it? I glare at nothing in particular then sigh. I'm just tired. Going into my potential form and back is tiring, I can feel exhaustion creeping up from the back of my mind, and I feel it in my back especially. Being knocked around stinks.

I feel the jet slowly returning to a slightly vertical position and we are going a bit slower, I head back up front and re-try my original plan with Stark's help. We nearly get skewered, but we manage to land remotely safely in the water. Sheesh, we're down near southern California. But we're too beaten up to trek up to San Francisco. We set up at one of Stark's abandoned facilities nearby. Lab camp out! We let the jet sink into the deep water after we erase all data/evidence it ever belonged to the Avengers. Wasp and Gi-Ant man head out to look for Blondie and I have first watch over Green-Eyes and Co.

We lock the prisoners in an empty room; I bring in some metal chairs and have some fun welding them to the metal floor. I tie them up on them, careful that they are nowhere near each other; air can't untie your hands. They face me at first, but I move around the room constantly. Eventually they wake up, and I just continue walking around.

Green-Eyes is the first one awake; he twitches before he opens his eyes so I freeze in the shadows, testing him. He looks surprised at first then his expression settles into one of annoyance and determination. Oh, yeah. This one's definitely a spy. He quickly, and discreetly assesses his situation and escape routes. Then he notices me and he looks like he would face palm if he weren't tied up. I smile a bit.

The others wake up soon after, it's the same routine, surprise, assess, face palm (assuming they weren't tied up). I just walk round, asking questions.

"What is you name?" I ask to no one in particular.

Three sets of eyes glare at me. I shrug. "I'm…" It occurs to me that I don't have a "super-hero name", like Ironman, or Captain America or Hawkeye or whatever. I'll have to figure that out.

"You're..?" Green-Eyes says, one eyebrow raised.

I shrug again, "I spill if you do, Green-Eyes."

He frowns.

"Fine, then. You'll just stay Green-Eyes."

There's a long silence, then Green-Eyes speaks up.

"Jamie."

"Call me Huntress."

I smile, I just blurted it out, but I like it. Huntress. Like my potential form. I'm satisfied with it.

Then Jamie's friend speaks, "I'm Aaron"

I nod. I'm beginning to think these guys don't really like their jobs, they seem pretty cooperative, and they haven't lied yet. Yes, telepath weirdo, remember? Maybe it isn't their job (because they seem pretty good at it.) maybe it's what they're doing for their job. You can like/be content with being a spy and not like/believe/trust the motives or assignment. That's why I left SHEILD in the first place, the motives weren't right. Especially Fury's. He's always seemed a bit off to me. Guess we'll find out when we interrogate the captives.

**Authors note!**

**ok, I know it may be confusing on how they got from kansas to south california, well, the jet was going at an extremely high speed, and I'm mean, Stark is crazy so he pulled the jet higher into the atmosphere using the significantly smaller back-ups but then the spies attacked Stark and they got a bit off course and the spies trashed one of the back-ups on the way out, which means that they get to fall to the earth in a flaming jet. Fun right! :D**

**Reviews highly appreciated!**


	10. Escape Attempt

I spend another two hours guarding the captives, and then Hawkeye comes in and takes over. I spend the first five minutes watching them. Hawkeye does the same thing I do, walking around, asking basic questions. Before he took over I informed him of the information I had gathered, what information I gave away. Jamie was seventeen, Aaron was eighteen, Drake was seventeen (the other one I knocked out.) they are trained assassins and have been with the program since they were twelve. The program is unknown. He smiled when I told him my name was Huntress. After that I went to find everyone else. Black Widow asked what I learned, I told her what I told Hawkeye.

"Huntress?" she said with a grin.

I shrug, "hey, you know."

She just chuckled. "What were their names again?"

"Jamie, Aaron and Drake."

She nodded, "Got it. Any clues on the program?"

"Obviously a spy network, not sure which, no clue who they take orders from. So our only clue is the idiot that yelled "director!" But considering the spy seemed more…annoyed, as if fighting a giant blue chick with dual swords wasn't in the job description."

Black Widow nodded, "Yeah, I automatically thought of Fury."

May turn to nod, "I agree, he is the first to mind. But it could always be a false trail. Best not to show suspicion yet. If he is the enemy, there's no need to give him a head start on us."

"Yep, that would defeat the whole purpose of spy capture and interrogation, considering the purpose is to get a step ahead." Stark said walking up to us.

Wasp spoke up as well, "Hmm, we should probably interrogate them soon, before the information becomes out dated."

Gi-Ant man just nods, engulfed in Starks leftover junk and research still scattered about the abandoned facility.

I shake my head; he's more scientist than superhero. But hey, whatever works, right?

"So who's up for first round of interrogations?" Black Widow asks.

"How about the spies go first?" Panther says, "Amethyst, Natasha and Clint."

Captain America adds, "Amethyst? No offense but she's a bit young to interrogate spies."

I frown and say in a dangerously quiet, "I've been through just as much as the rest of you. I'll be fine."

He puts his hands up, as if in surrender.

Panther quickly adds, "If she has trouble, she ask. Right?"

I nod. Not that I'll need it, I was trained by SHEILD, too, remember?

I head back to the room where Hawkeye and the captives are, followed closely by Black Widow. Hawkeye nods though the glass when he sees us.

"It's time already?" Hawkeye asks us, sounding attentive but still bored.

"Aw! Is a little bird bored?" Black Widow teases.

I roll my eyes, I have no idea why they aren't together yet. And people think teenagers are crazy.

"Okay, can we get on with it? I'm not in for the mood for watching a bunch of mush."

The spies both turn red. And I laugh.

"Alright, take your pick." Hawkeye says gesturing to the guys tied up.

"Draw straws?" I suggest, "Because I'm too annoyed to care."

"Okay." Black Widow says, shrugging.

"Short straw is Drake, medium is Jamie and tall straw is Aaron. Be right back." Hawkeye says before heading out the door.

Black Widow smiles, "Come on spit it out, who ya hoping for?"

I roll my eyes at her, "If you want a girl talk, go talk to Wasp, I'm sure she'd love to spill about Hank (Gi-Ant man)"

She pouts in a highly uncharacteristic way, but I guess even Black Widow is still girly, despite being a spy.

Then she realizes something, "Oh, I...You only grew up with your dad right? And adopted at that… no wonder you don't do girl talks…"

I smile, highly amused. Then I start thinking about dad.

"Oh, I'm sorry kid. I didn't mean too."

I look at her questioningly, then blush as I realize that my smile had probably disappeared the second I started thinking about dad. I shrug. "I'm fine. I just want to get this over with, ask about my dad for me, ok? James Strikesilver."

Hawkeye come through the door just as we settled for an awkward silence. He looks at us quizzically, "What happened? Why you guys so down?"

We both shrug, and I say, "I was just thinking about my dad. You'll ask about him, right?"

He nods, "James Strikesilver, right?"

I nod in return.

"Alright, draw." He says turning to Black Widow.

She pulls out one of the three straws.

I pull out mine, leaving Hawkeye with his.

We compare straws. Black Widow got Drake, Hawkeye got Aaron and I'm left with Jamie.

"Ok, Hawkeye, you get the room over by the bionics lab, Black Widow stays here, I'll go to the room closest to the analyzing samples lab. We should go one at a time, so no two are ever free at once. Got it?" I say quickly and quietly.

"I'll go first, I'll radio you when He's tied up in there." Hawkeye says gesturing to the radio on his belt. Black Widow nods.

"Ok, I'll go after you call in." I say.

Hawkeye quickly unties Aaron from the chair then reties his hands; he grabs the separate rope and loops it over his shoulder. He nods, and then escorts him to the left.

Hawkeye calls in shortly after.

I load my pistol and place it back in my belt. I untie Jamie then retie his hands, looping the extra rope onto my belt. If he tries to escape, I'd rather not have one arm tangled up, Hawkeye's strong enough to fight one armed, I'm not.

I grab his upper arm, and lead him to the right.

Half way through he swings his legs, tripping me and I lose my grip on his arm. Crap. He starts running, I get up and race after him, I catch up easily, mainly because he hasn't managed to untie his hands. I leap in front of him and point my pistol at his head. I put the pistol at my belt as soon as he's got his hands up, knowing that I'm not going to use it unless my life is threatened. He quickly drops his bound hands and tried to push past me. I punch him in the jaw as he tries to slip past me, the punch is quickly followed by a kick in the gut, then the chest. Jamie's on the ground groaning. I crouch down.

"That was not smart, buddy." I whisper, my heart racing from adrenaline. "Not smart at all."

I proceed to half-drag him to the room. Well, that was annoying.

**Authors Note!**

**Yeah, I know I didn't actually get to the interrogation, I promise, that will be in the next chapter! Please review! THanks a ton!**

**-ZyllaKat**


	11. Interrogations and Surprises

I tie him up to the chair I welded into the floor earlier, he just glared at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, you got beat up by a girl. Deal with it, then get used to it." I say, highly irritated.

He glares.

"Alright, so, you know the drill. I ask, you answer." More glaring, "And if you aren't feeling cooperative I have get fired and guess who gets my job?"

He raises an eyebrow.

"Hulk."

He frowns, then glares with more vigor.

I sigh. "Who are you?

"Jamie."

"That's not what meant and you know it."

He shrugs.

"Fine. When did you start training?"

"Ten years old. You?"

"Yeah, no. Nice try though." Jamie grits his teeth.

"Who do you work for?"

"Huh, skipping the basics?"

"Not at all."

"…" He's opted for silence. If he was going to go that route he should have started off like that. Silence has to be self-disciplined. By not starting at first shows me that he's breakable. Very, very breakable. I tell him this.

I sit on the floor not far from him, in a relaxed manner, just thinking.

Why has he decided to remain silent? We can help him out of just about any mess. I sigh. Fine, I play good cop, bad cop all in one spy. Fun right? Well I've always been told I have multiple perspectives and personalities.

"My name is Amethyst." I say quietly, "I'm sixteen years old, I finished high school when I was fourteen and my foster dad died a few moths ago. I never knew my real parents, don't want to based on the reports."

He looks up at me, surprised. I continue, "He taught me everything I know…well except the blue skinned, purple-eyed warrior. That's just a small…condition of mine. It can get a lot worse though." I say quietly.

"Do you ever scare yourself sometimes?" he asks softly "because I scare myself sometimes. I've been through stuff, done things, that even the most seasoned war veteran would cower from."

I nod sadly, "Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it's all I can do to decipher who's friend, who's foe. Who's right, who's wrong. Who's doing it for the right reasons, the right motives."

He snorts, "Yeah. Funny how people make a bunch of teens go at each other's throats for their business, how they destroy lives for their own enjoyment."

"That what happened to you?"

He nods, "Don't pretend that's not why you do it."

I shake my head, "It's not. I do it for my dad. I…if I could…I would never let anyone feel the same grief, the same feeling of emptiness that I feel all to often."

Jamie just stares at me. I stand up, fed up with this heart-to-heart thing. I'm not one for those types of things anyway. So why did I open up? What's wrong with me?

I walk over to Jamie and say harshly, "What do you know about the murder of James Strikesilver?"

His eyes widen and he curses. "You're…his daughter?"

I laugh. It's not a genuine or pretty sound. Why am I so angry?

"Yeah."

"That would be why we were sent specifically to kill you and whoever else we could."

"You boss was told we would both be in that building, right?"

He nods.

Silence stretches for several minutes.

"Who do they have?" I ask suddenly.

He looks startled, then angry. "How did you know that?"

"You think I haven't been in that position? You think that wasn't why they killed him?" I was shouting no, tears welling up. "I failed! And he died!"

The idiot boy just gawks at me.

I clench my fists. Stupid boy. Stupid boy! Getting me all worked up. I cursed under my breath. I'm pretty sure poor Jamie thinks I'm a psychopath or something. Oh well, I'll just roll with it then.

"Who killed my father?" I say glaring at him; my eyes burning with unshed salt tears.

"Nick Fury." He says slowly, "Nick Fury killed your father."

I nod, "Why?"

"You really don't know?"

I sigh. Yeah, I do know. But I hate that memory. I always will.

"So, you never answered my question."

"My little sister. She's five-years-old." He says in a very small voice.

I nod. "Where is she?"

"The main facility. Gray Street San Francisco."

I walk over to the door, unlock it, and begin to turn the handle. I turn around, "You've been free of you bonds five minutes after I tied them. You coming, or not?"

Jamie's jaw drops open, "How did you...why didn't you…"

I shrug, "You didn't seem like the like of person who would kill anyone unless it was distinctly necessary. You seemed a lot like me. Did you happen to be trained by jay Blade at SHEILD?"

He nods dumbly.

"Me too. I quit halfway through. I never liked that guy."

Jamie shrugged as we walked down the hallway to the main room where everyone but the other spies were. The look on their faces was priceless! They just gawked. I crossed my arms and said, "the guy was blackmailed, I'm going to head down to the headquarters with him to rescue his sister and no he's not lying I read his mind."

They still gawked. Panther was the first to regain his composure, "That's it? You're just going?"

"San Francisco, Gray street." I said, "Oh! And Nick Fury killed my dad."

More gawking. So helpful.

Hawkeye and Black Widow came back. More gawking at me. I sighed.

The spies quickly shook it off, "Amethyst we need you to make sure these guys aren't lying. They're making some very...outrageous…claims"

I nod and follow them.

Drake and Aaron are tied up in the first room. About an hour later I head back to the main room, where Jamie is fitting right in. Everyone's a bit tense but not too much suspicion. Just awkwardness. But it's good to know the team trusts my judgment.

Jamie walks up to me, "So, did you mean what you said? About rescuing my sister?"

I nod, "We can leave tomorrow."

His eyes light up and he actually smiles. He's kind of cute when he does that…my face heats up. Ugh. No. No crushes, especially not on previous enemies. Not smart. Besides, the rescue mission will basically be Jamie's test of trust. Well see if he's really got what it takes to go against SHEILD.


	12. Driving, Laughing, Blushing

We wake up early, as in its not even light outside. I'm not a morning person, but it's a long drive. Especially if you're driving a stolen car, which we have yet to steal. Fun, right?

"Hey, so are really stealing a car?" Jamie asks groggily.

"Um, unless we find an alternative." I say distracted by the gadgets Gi-Ant Man had finished working on.

"Hey, come look at this stuff, we can take some of this." I said, then waved Gi-Ant Man over, "So what's ours?"

"Um, anything that you can fit on your person and in the bag."

I nod, a grin appearing on my face. This was going to be fun, I mean, Gi-Ant Man _never_ lets me use his stuff, and Stark limits my usage of his gadgets, so I either make my own, or have to sneak stuff that won't be missed. I left all my tools in Manhattan, and the guys wouldn't let me borrow anything. So I'm very excited.

We pack up the gadgets and are headed out the door, when Stark stops us, hollering "Hey! Obnoxious Teens! Check the garage!" Then he turns around and heads back into the heart of the abandoned facility.

Jamie looks at me. I shrug. "So, where is the garage? I was only freed yesterday, I don't know my way around."

"Back over this way." I say pointing.

"Come help me lift the door." I say to Jamie.

"Why don't you just shift into a stronger form?" He asks walking over.

I shrug. " Each shift uses energy, but no energy to maintain, each shift back uses energy."

"How much energy?"

"Not much, but I start noticing after about four and back per hour."

He nods as he slips his fingers under the garage door, I do the same. He nods and we lift it up. Oh. My. Gosh.

Jamie grins. He's so love-struck by this car…I hop in the drivers seat and he frowns. "Are you even old enough to drive this?"

"No pouting, and I've been driving since I was thirteen. Flying since I was fourteen."

"Seriously? I've been doing both since I was fifteen, as part of my training. What's your deal?"

"My dad was a secret agent, and was constantly being attacked or someone trying to steal his tech… I learned on the job. I had natural skills for spying etc. So he let SHEILD train me when he went on business trips."

Jamie sighed, "Fine, but I get to drive on the way back."

I rolled my eyes as I pulled out of the garage, "You are such a boy."

He laughed, and I blushed. Wow. I just say stupid stuff sometimes, don't I?

We drove for a few hours before Jamie said, "So, why do you trust me exactly?"

I stared at the mildly busy road, "I'm not sure. I mean, I'm not a particularly trusting person. But…"

We sat in silence. It started to rain. That's California for you.

"But what?"

"You didn't judge me when I had a melt down while interrogating you. In fact, based on the emotion you were emitting (telepath, remember?) you seemed pretty empathetic, almost like you wanted to sit down and cry with me."

He smiled a bit, "I did."

"Alright, so I spilled my guts, it's your turn."

"Sorry, what?" He says looking over at me. His amazing green eyes full of amused confusion.

"How do you know I'm not taking you to Alcatraz?" There happens to be a top-secret underneath The Rock. Yeah, don't tell anybody, it's under water and a lot of rock, so it's totally secure, it's mainly for corrupt spies, terrorists, assassins etc. The worst of the worst.

"Because you care about why I trust you. And you know what it's like to have your whole world ripped from underneath you."

"Well, what if that was a cover story? I'm a very good actress."

"And what if my story was fake?"

"I'm a freaking telepath, you can't lie to me. Your mind is an open book! And despite how hard people may try, it's impossible to lie to yourself. Believe me, I've tried."

"What did you try to lie about?"

"My dad dying. I desperately wanted it to just be an accident. Or better yet, a bad dream. Nothing but a nightmare. Unfortunately I'm a realist, so the only two conclusions for my dad's murder were; I either never woke up, or it happened. So I stopped lying."

Jamie nods, "Yeah. Once I tried to convince myself I didn't have a sister. That I didn't work for SHEILD, and best yet, that "powers" didn't exist. Like they didn't before the Avengers. But, if super-heroes didn't exist…SHEILD would have never saved me and my sister. And I would have never met Drake and Aaron, who are my best friends and I wouldn't have survived, I would have died with my parents. And I wouldn't have met you. Probably one of the few people who actually knows how hard being a forced spy is."

I blushed. And by blush I mean, I felt like I was sick, my face was so heated. He looked back over to me, and upon seeing my blush, he blushed. This of course, didn't help.

I finally let out that nervous laugh I had been holding. At first Jamie looked at me like I was insane, then he started laughing too. Laughing is the best stress-reliever, ever. Especially if you're laughing with a friend. It occurred to me, that Jamie was my only friend that was actually my age. I had friends before the Avengers, but after my dad died, they faded away; only ever giving my pity, and even that was given in an awkward, distant way. They didn't know how to help me, they couldn't take the rough waters. Not like Jamie would have, not like Wasp, Black Widow and the rest would have, had they been there. I smiled, and eventually, our laughter died down into a companionable silence. Until we saw the sign reading;

San Francisco two miles. We began to prepare. We strapped gadgets to our wrists, belts and into our pockets. We were ready. Bad guys beware.

**Authors Note!**

**Yeah, this was a less action-y chapter than usual, just getting to know the characters a bit, and why on earth Amethyst trusted him so darn quickly, but the next one is going to be kicking-butt, getting beat up, kicking more butt, and all that jazz! :D So anyway, if you want to point out mistakes or lack of, or just put some thoughts or suggestions down, please leave a review, I always try to take them into account!**

**thankyouthankyouthankyou,**

**ZyllaKat**


	13. Climbing

**Authors Note! **

**Yes, I know I promise action in this one, but it took some explaining for the entrance and stuff...so in the next one it will be all the chaos everyone loves! :) And of course I love reviews, rants, positive, negative, thoughts, comments and all that good stuff!**

**-ZyllaKat**

* * *

We drive out near the Golden Gate Bridge, and park nearby. According to Drake, Aaron and Jamie there's a secret entrance that was put out of use a while back, underneath the bridge. So, we get to sneak around on the shores of shark infested waters. Fun.

We head down towards the rocky shoreline. We climb down closer to the water, descending in barely ten minutes. It would take much longer for anyone else to get to the giant red posts.

"Okay, now what?" I ask Jamie.

"Start climbing, the metal might be slippery from the mist."

I gawk at him, "So we're just going to climb up the Golden Gate Bridge?"

"Yeah, we'll have to be careful, they closed it down because of the danger, not just this part of the entrance, they kept loosing agents." He continued, "It was designed so only trained agents could enter, but the conditions were ridiculous, and so even one slip up and you face-plant into the rocks."

I laugh nervously, and then take a deep breath, "Nothing we can't handle I'm sure."

He smiles wearily, "Yeah, but we'll have be on our best, ok? Don't get comfortable or cocky."

I nod, my nervousness has died down into a cold determination, just like it always does.

I sling my bag over my shoulder, across my body and grip the metal as I slowly put one foot, then the other onto the slightly slick metal. After I get a good few feet in the air, Jamie starts his climb.

The metal is crazy slick, and I have to really stretch to reach the next bar, I'm hardly half-way up and my muscles ache, and I'm sweating. Ugh. I take a deep breath and reach up again, clutching my previous handhold with all my strength, I feel the metal under my fingers and reach up with my other hand.

Suddenly, my fingers loose their grip on the structure, and I feel my self falling. My mind is totally blank, no thoughts, not life flashing before my eyes, just anger. Nothing but that anger. I see Jamie, his eyes wide, watching me, I hold out my arm, only now realizing that I'm _freaking falling!_ He reaches out too, and he grabs my hand, I just barely manage to hold on.

We're both staring at our hands, our eyes wide.

"O-ok…I'm going to swing you a little. Just enough so you can grab on to the bridge again, ok?" Jamie stutters, "we're ok, we're ok…."

I feel him tense and then swing me over to the red metal structure, I grip it for dear life, and he lets go of my hand.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. We begin to climb again.

After about an hour, we reached the top.

My hands were raw and shaking.

I scowled at him, "That was _awful!_"

He grins wearily, the way he does.

"Ok, we'll have to hit the activation key, right over there," He says pointing to a spot on the metal. One of us is going to have to climb monkey-bar style. Not fun.

I sigh. "I hate SHEILD."

Jamie laughs nervously, "Tell me about it. I've only entered this way once!"

"Ok, I'll go."

He raises an eyebrow. "No, you don't have to do that."

I shrug, and then smile. I think about how ridiculous this all is. Two teenagers with no parents perched in a ledge on the Golden Gate Bridge to rescue a little kid from a bunch of spies. What kind of world do we live in, exactly?

"Watch me." I say with a quick grin, a tease to try to reassure him that I'm ok.

He gives me a small smile, "Just be careful, the Avengers would have my head if you died on my watch."

I rolled my eyes. And reached out for the first bar. Then I swung to the next, and then I made a mistake. I looked at the rocks below me and it took me a second to shake off the mental image of me falling towards them. I reached for the next bar. Then another. And again. Until I reached the spot Jamie had indicated. I let the bar go with one hand and press down on the bolt with my thumb. A thick metal platform shoots out of the rock face, leading into a door with a keypad beside it.

I drop down onto the walkway; Jamie does monkey-bars for a few feet, then drops on the walkway too, falling in step behind me.

He brushes past me, and enters the code, then loos at me, "83479, remember that, ok? 83479. We'll need it to get out."

I nod. 83479. Got it.

We walk through the door into the darkness. The door shuts eerily. Since when was this a horror story? Because _I_ thought it was Sci/fi and adventure. But that's just me.

"That didn't happen last time…?" Jamie muttered.

I heard a small shuffle, and tensed up. This could end very badly. I quieted my breathing and made contact with Jamie's mind, _Try to quiet your breathing, be on alert, I'll maintain the mental connection, so just think about something and then concentrate on the connection, I suggest concentrating on the shadows in your peripheral vision. Okay?_

_Yeah, I think I got it. _Jamie tells me.

I slide my razors out of my hands again, yeah; I'm in love with these weapons, deal with it. Despite my claws I find myself wishing for my dual swords, but they were too hard to climb with on my back, so their still in the bag. Crap.

We just stand there, totally tense, and somehow we managed to get back to back.

I can't hear or see anything. Then I hear the scrape of metal against the floor. Some little spy forgot their gun holder makes noise. A barely the shadow as the spy lunges at me, I leap out of the way, but a knife makes a small slit in my shoulder, my eyes are beginning to adjust slightly, good. I hear a gun cock, and I reach for my own. Cocking it and aiming it in the direction of the sound. I shift my eyes into owl eyes, I'm sure I look like some sort of demon, but at least I can see. I immediately notice the night-vision goggles the agent is wearing. Ugh. Look over to my right where Jamie is, I reach out and touch him with one hand.

_Ok, this might feel a bit weird; I'm going to shift your eyes into an owl's eyes, ok? You'll be able to see better._

_Ok, go ahead. _Jamie says.

I transfer some of my energy to him, giving him freaky looking owl eyes. I fire a few shots at one of the spies, knocking the gun out of his hand, yes; it is as fun as it looks in the movies. In case you were wondering.


	14. Jay Blade

I was getting majorly annoyed by now. We had been fighting for awhile and the stupid agents just won't let up! No matter how many we knock out or injure more just come into the very cramped room.

Eventually, I heard a shot that seemed louder than the other ones, and it was headed for Jamie. My eyes widen as I see it fly far too fast for him to get out of the way or for me to do anything about it. It hits him just under his knee, from the back. Oh crap.

Jamie crumbles to the floor and passes out fast because of the pain. Blood quickly surround his legs, and pools around on the floor.

I clench my fist hard around the gun, not thinking particularly straight. I feel myself run, tracing the shot line to the sniper. I aim.

And I fire.

He desperately tries to avoid it, but instead of clipping his forearm, his attempted dodge made it fly trough his shoulder. The sniper collapses holding his shoulder with his opposite hand.

I am in full rage. I barely notice the dozen guns pointed at my head. And then I do. I put down my gun, trembling with rage.

The butt of the gun come down over my head, and all goes black.

* * *

I wake up to a dimly lit room, my arms tied behind me and a gag in my mouth. Humph. I can't even make witty remarks!

I look around, straining my neck to see Jamie across the room, tied up in a similar fashion. I groan. This is such a mess. Then I remember Jamie's knee, and whip my head around again.

He's still unconscious, and his knee bandaged up, but otherwise untended. Crappy SHEILD.

I sigh into my gag and wait.

I stare at the ceiling and back at Jamie and then at the shadowy door.

Then, a SHEILD agent I recognize as my former teacher, Jay Blade. I glare at the man who tried to make me into a monster.

"So. My little prodigy. Flame." Jay Blade sneers.

Flame. My would-be code name had I choose to stay at SHEILD.

He moves a bit closer, and removes my gag. I remain silent, despite the many curses and remarks that are begging to spill out of my mouth, silence is best.

"What? Nothing to say to me? No rant about what an awful person I am not leave your little boyfriend untended?"

I keep my expression relatively blank, and no retort about how he is not my boyfriend comes out of my mouth, as it usually would.

He frowns at me. "Well, Flame. I'll be back in a while, after I go talk with Black Feather over there."

Black Feather must be Jamie's code name. Trained by the bird, named like the bird apparently. I refuse to watch as Jay Blade shakes Jamie awake and question him, then promises to return, like he did me. Man, that dude has a loud voice.

I hear Jay Blade's footsteps come up behind me. I close my eyes, thinking.

"You're in deep aren't you?" My former mentor says quietly.

I can't hold my silence any longer. Next time he says something I swear I'm going to bring him down, get inside his head, something! Ugh!

"Tell me why you're here, Flame."

"Why wouldn't I be here? I was an agent at one point." I say with a false sweetness.

"Hmph. You left half-way through your training."

I grinned up at him, "OH, please. You know I was already better than 50% of the agents, and by the time I was half way done, I was one of the best. Training was basically a formality, and you know it."

Jay Blade chuckled a little, "Yes, but you always hated the assassination training, despite your natural talent."

"Jay Blade?" I asked.

"What, Flame?"

"Why did you want to kill off your own agents, your own prodigy, no less."

He frowns at me. "And how did you figure that?"

I realize that this is not a interrogation, it's more like a game. A very deadly game. If you slip up, you better fix it before your opponent can take advantage of it, or else you end up six feet under.

"You didn't tell them about Huntress. That in it self make it a suicide mission, with them unaware on top of it."

He contemplates this for a moment.

I keep talking, " You really think they don't realize now that you tried to kill them? You sent Black Feather with weapon my father and I invented! You knew that would at very least send me into my potential form, if not my true form!"

Jay Blade glares at me, but then attempts to hide the fact that I had unearthed a part of some plan. The master slipped. Perhaps he's not the master anymore.

I pretend I didn't notice. No use giving him running start on me. I'll get as close as possible before I spring. I am the Huntress, after all.

"You going to tell me why you're here?" Jay Blade asks.

"To save a piece of leverage, don't tell me you didn't know?" I mock him. The best lie is an unbelievable truth.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? Now tell me the truth, little girl."

"Little girl? Really? Do you get beat up by little girls often?"

His face turns beet red. He pulls out a gun from the holster on his hip and points it at my head.

I stare into the barrel of the gun, and raise an eyebrow. He thinks for a moment then points it at my knee. I look at him, exasperated. He points it at Jamie. Just as planned.

I raise an eyebrow once more. He puts a tiny pressure on the trigger. I don't even flinch. I don't even glance back at Jamie. Nothing.

He pulls the trigger, the shot rings in my ears, I don't react. I desperately want to whip around and make sure the warning shot was just that.

I just look at Jay Blade, bored.

"Tell me, or he dies."

He turns my chair around, to see Jamie. He's conscious, and unharmed other than his knee. There's a bullet lodged in the cement wall barely a centimeter from the right side of his head.

He's not even scared, he just looks betrayed, angry.

"Now, Flame." Jay Blade says threateningly.

"We came to retrieve the files that were used to create the guns you manufactured to disable powers. We need the plans to create an antidote of sorts, something to heal from the guns effects then we can figure out the gun's weak points, considering they were improved." I said hurriedly, spilling my fake guts.

He nodded, eating up my lie.

**Authors Note!**

**Hey people! I hope you liked the chapter! Anyway, Nick Fury is going to make an appearance in the next chapter, and Amethyst gets to show off her spy skills! Banter and witty remarks as always along with a very paranoid Director Fury! **

**PLEASE REVIEW! :D**


	15. Escape Plans

Nick Fury comes in a few hours after Jay Blade left, no doubt to type up his report on the interrogation.

Nick Fury looks at me, then at Jamie.

Then he says to me, "How the crap did you manage to turn one of my best assassins against me?"

I gave him an overly sparkly grin, "What? Me? Get someone who hates your guts to turn against you?" Then my grin disappeared into a glare, "You didn't need me to convince your agents to hate you."

He glares daggers at me. "Why Black Feather out of the three?"

"What? You actually think it's just us who came?" I say irritably, the statement is false, but the mood isn't. I'm fed up with the SHEILD old guy interrogators.

He frowns. "We've been on full surveillance since you first touched the bridge."

"Who says we went first?" I say cryptically. Hmm. Cryptically. That must be my new favorite word.

"We checked already."

"Ri-ight. You're dealing with a bunch of super-geniuses, spies, and super-genius spies. You really think they would be so careless as to show up on cameras? I actually thought you were a master spy."

I pull my hands behind the chair and reach up on his shoulder, "You've go a bit of lint…" He looks at me aghast. My left hand sneaks into his pocket, pulling out his phone and putting it in my own, just quick enough for him not to notice.

Fury grabs my right hand, eyes glaring; he quickly pulls my hand back around the chair, tying a tighter knot than before. He mutters under his breath, "…. why would she do that…give herself away…alternative…. what's her plan…?"

"What? A girl can't show off every now and again?" I say innocently in respond to his mumbling.

He glares at me, "No, not you. Everything you do has a purpose. You're too smart for bragging. You're trying to get into our heads, It's not going to work, we're professionals, you're just a little girl with your daddy's toys."

I let this get to me just enough to make my reaction realistic, "I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL! NOT SINCE YOU TOOK HIM! NOT SINCE YOU MADE ME A MONSTOR!"

Nick Fury slapped my face. I glare at him. I wasn't even done with my rant!

My cheek stings even after he leave. That old guy hits hard. I look at the security camera and smile at Fury, where I know he's double-checking the security footage. Excellent.

I take a few deep breaths, and then I focus. I wait until the camera swivels a way, towards Jamie. I pull out the phone and scroll through the messages quickly. Some to Trevor Greene (Jay Blade) and a few from way back to James Strikesilver. I slip the phone back into my pocket. And then shift it into my hands, I'll get it out later, then retie my hands before the camera sees me. I can't help it. I shoot a cocky grin the camera's way.

You know, just to tick someone off.

A few hours pass, and it seems like Jamie is alert enough to re-establish mental contact with.

_Hey, you doing ok? _I ask him.

_No. My leg hurts like crazy. You ok? I saw Fury hit you…_

_I'm fine, managed to snatch his phone. Turns out he was calling my dad's cell on the day he died and then again a few days ago…It doesn't make sense!_

_Anything about Anna?_

_Your little sister? No, I looked to see if he had ordered her to a specific place…nothing._

_Ok, we'll just find her the old fashioned way. We'll search the place up, down and sideways until we find her. _

_After we escape._

_Of course. After we escape. _

_Okay, I'll have to shift a lot with this plan, so I might be a bit groggy, and you're injured. We'll have to rest at some point. _

_This place was abandoned last month, when I was here. There are bound to be some rooms unused. We just have to find them. _

_Can do. Tomorrow then?_

The plan was to lure the guard with the keys into the room. I would get out of my bonds then scurry over to hide in the camera's blind spot. Then while the camera swivels the other way, free Jamie. We hide in the blind spot with out the guards knowing we're there. It will look like we just vanished into thin air. Then, when the door opens, we smash some heads and disappear. Then we search the facility, with out getting caught, break out Anna and then get out using the most expensive thing we can find in the Air Craft Hanger.

It's time to make a fool out of Nick Fury.

* * *

**Authors Note! **

**Yeah, this one has been shorter than the last few, but I'm having writers block, which will hopefully be resolved soon.. thanks for reading! Reviews always appreciated!**

**-ZyllaKat**


	16. How to Dodge Bullets

(chapter title continue) How to Dodge Bullets While Dealing With Your Conscious

I put the plan into motion, I release my hands, and run to the blind spot, leaving Fury's phone on the chair, just to show off, just because I can. I am a teenager, after all.

The second I bolt to the blind spot, the camera swivels to where I was seconds ago, so I race over to Jamie and untie him, then we rush back to the blind spot. The guard comes flings the door back, narrowly missing my face; I swing it back, hitting him hard with the metal door. The poor guard crumples to the ground, his nose at an odd angle. That must hurt.

We step over the guard and race down the hallway, dodging cameras and knocking heads. That's always interesting. After a few minutes we start dodging bullets as well. One actually came so close I could feel it fly through my hair; that one made me shudder, Jamie gawked. We rushed around, and when we knocked out someone, we grabbed any supplies we needed and started running again. It's hard for him, his knee is hurting him a lot.

My lungs felt like they were on fire, we had been playing cat and mouse for well over four hours, it consisted of sprinting, ducking, dodging, jogging, shifting, shifting while sprinting. It was exhausting. I ducked once more, panting hard, just in time to hear a bullet bounce of the corner of the crate me and Jamie were hiding behind. Have you ever had to make a hole in you stomach, and have a bullet go straight through that hole, then close it up again within 10 seconds? It takes a lot out of you, trust me. I didn't even know I could do that! I reload my gun quickly, and fire at the SHEILD agents, knocking a few of their gun's out of their hands, hitting one in the upper arm. I sigh quietly. A sixteen-year-old girl's biggest problems should consist of shopping, crushes on boys, and gossip. Not, firing guns, avoiding bullets and coping with the fact that you are hurting someone, and could potentially kill them if your aim wavers. Not to mention you dad got murdered. That's a lot to have on your conscious. Jamie's looking at me, concerned. I blink and wonder why he's staring at me like that. That is, until I blink again, and feel one, wet, salty streak run down my face. I take a deep breath and try and shake it off.

_You okay?_ Jamie asks me mentally.

_Not the slightest. I'm sixteen and most definitely emotionally compromised. How's your leg?_

_So you need to rest and calm yourself down? Me too. My leg is killing me. _

_Yeah, I can imagine. Your whole leg is soaked with blood. _

I point up to the vent, then set of a smoke bomb which should give us cover for about 2 minutes.

He quickly unscrews the vent while I cover him, gun pointed in front. He gestures for me to get in the vent, and I do. He follows me and throws a bit of cloth over towards a door, giving them a trail to follow, then gets in the vent and closes it again.

I crawl through the vent as quietly as I can, peering through any gaps, to check for anything worth seeing or knowing. Nothing interesting.

Until I see an empty room, dust filled and unlit.

_Found a place, I think. Lets check it out. _

_Alright. Do I just drop down at the next vent?_

_Yep, careful though. _

_Okay. _

I unscrew the vent and drop through it, landing in a crouched position. I quickly move, allowing Jamie to come down through the vent. I sneak over to the door, it's rusted and locked, like no one has been here of years. I pull on it, but it won't budge. It's rusted shut. Excellent.

There are a few crates and boxes around the room. Jamie is starting to pry open a one of them. I come over to him, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"These look like extra supplies from a while ago, maybe twenty years back, there might be stuff we could use in these." He grunts as he finally gets it open. "Hey, could you help with these?"

I nod and shift one of my hands into metal beams. I slid my hand under the wood, and brace it with the other hand. I pull it open. I find some ammunition and a few blankets. Who stores bullets, black powder and blankets in the same crate? I shake my head.

_Found some bullets, black powder and blankets…._

_Good, all I've got is some files, none of them relevant. And there are some smoke bombs, but I'm not even sure they work any more. _

We open a few more crates and find some unfinished blue prints, blankets, black powder, bullets, some handbooks, a few guns, and a machine gun. The last few were pretty good. I take a few breaths sand grab some blankets and settle down in a corner, next to the machine gun (don't give me that look, if you were hiding out in a hive of assassins who wanted your head on a plaque, you'd be paranoid and want a machine gun too.) Jamie goes into a corner.

_You okay? _I ask him.

_Nope. _

_You thinking about your little sister?_

_Yep. _

_She's going to be fine, we'll find her, I promise. _

_What about you? You were the one who was crying earlier._

_I'm sixteen and have more on my conscious than the average navy SEAL or CIA agent, yeah, I do get emotional about it sometimes. _

_What do you mean?_

_Most teenage girls get to worry about clothes, pimples and boys. I get to worry about my dad's murderer, SHEILD agents who want me dead or brainwashed, and fighting assassins and super-villains. Not to mention the fact that I'm constantly avoiding dying._

He interrupts me, _literally by a hair. _

I smile at this, and then wonder if my hair is shorter in some places.

_And the fact that if our aim isn't spot-on, some one could die because of it. _

Jamie's silent for a while.

_And that's the worst part, isn't it? People dying because of you? Whether its an accidental bullet through an enemy, who you only wanted to get out of the way (not have them die, just keep them out of your hair) or someone you care about, as blackmail or just so someone can hurt you. _

We sit in silence for the longest time, then a thought occurs to me; _Maybe I can heal your leg, I could shift-heal it like I did with your eyes earlier!_

_Seriously? _

_I can at least try. _

I go over to him, he rolls up his pant leg and I study his knee. Oh, that is _so_ gross. His knee cap is shattered, pieces of it are jutting through his flesh, and I can see where the bullet exited. I close my eyes and concentrate on shifting it. He cries out a few times but then gasps. I open my eyes. His knee is whole, but there are scars littered all over where the bones had been jutting out, and where the bullet had gone through.

He grins, and then laughs "That's amazing!"

I smile, then head back to my spot by the machine gun. My paranoid spot, and settle into the blankets, and eventually fall into a dreamless dark.

* * *

Authors Note!

Eeeek! I can't believe it took SO long for me to update! I'm SO sorry! Hope you liked the chapter, if you did REVIEW if you didn't like it, _still_ REVIEW! :D Thank you for reading!

Also, I used to be ZyllaKat, but I changed my pen name to BeingWhoIWishIWas ;)


	17. New Legends

I open my eyes to near total darkness, only a light coming from where Jamie is sitting.

"What are you doing?" I ask, annoyed.

"Fiddling with high explosives" he says nonchalantly, he says it like someone would say 'Oh, I'm just reading my favorite book'

I roll my eyes. If you find little bits of Amethyst Strikesilver splattered on the wall, blame Jamie.

"So how are we going to save Anna?" He asks, concern creeping into his voice.

"We can start searching as soon as I wake up."

"But you are awake…?"

"No, actually, I'm not. I'm in the 'Zombie' stage of waking up."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm drowsy and slow."

"Oh."

"Yep"

We lapsed back into silence.

I pack up my equipment and gesture to Jamie that he should do the same.

Within 20 minutes we're ready to leave. We crawl back in the vents stopping to look through every opening. Nothing.

Eventually we reach the aircraft hanger. I turn around so I'm sitting criss-cross, looking at Jamie.

"You OK?"

"Honestly? No. I can't find my baby sister and I'm feeling pathetic." He says, sounding frustrated.

I try to say something but he immediately starts again, "I mean, I can try and save her, but that would put you in danger even more, or I could leave and not rescue her but save you. I'm majorly PO'd at the world right now."

I blink. He was worried about me? "Look, Jamie, I knew what I was getting into, and you don't need to protect me, and you definitely don't need to worry about me. I assumed we would pass the hanger and try and hack the computer's database and see if there's anything there on Anna. We need a plan, so that's why I stopped."

He takes a deep breath than looks at me concerned. "You sure?"

I roll my eyes. "I knew what I was getting into when I told you we'd save your sister."

"Ok, do you have any ideas?" He asks.

"I think I could sneak over to a jet and program the auto pilot to take off…and have it head to another base...maybe have it fire upon getting in range of the SHEILD base…that way even if they find out we aren't in it, they still have to shut it down."

"Ok, what do I do?"

"Start setting up the plan for breaking into the computer room, we'll need a distraction etc. So get working on that, I'll be back in 20, Ok?"

He nods.

I crawl farther into the vent. I spot the targeted jet and set off a small smoke bomb, near the engine of another jet, so they won't suspect that I'm here. Then I drop down onto the jet and crawl inside. I quickly override all the passcodes and firewalls to access the controls of the autopilot. I set it for a base in the middle of nowhere, in the Yukon Territory of Canada, far enough off so that it would seem believable that I didn't want anyone but SHEILD to get hurt. I set it to fire near the base, than set it so that I could control the plane, I could tell it to self-destruct before it kills anyone.

The smoke clear and I quickly jump to the low-hanging vent again, and close it up. No one realizing what happened before the smoke cleared.

I climb back to where I left Jamie. He's scribbling all over a blue print.

"Where'd you get a blueprint and a pen?"

He looks up, startled. "Oh, I just took them from the office, both were one of many, so they won't be missed.

I nod, "Good so what's the plan?"

"…well, I think that you could lead them on a wild goose chase, lose them, and double back around, we can jam their radios before hand, and hopefully pick up any signals they might send."

I nod, "That could work, and if not, we get caught and we can escape again." I say with a slightly-creepy positive smile.

He gives me a cocky grin, his old self-returning.

"So are we gonna get going?"

I grin wickedly.

I drop down from a vent near the room. Open up the door nice and wide everyone stops and stares at me. I stumble back, trying to look surprised, like I opened the wrong door.

They all immediately jump to their feet and start pursuit, like well-trained SHEILD agents do.

They chase after me, bullets rocketing off the walls. I manage to lose most of them, all but one actually.

_Stupid boy. _I think to myself looking back.

Hmm. I think, stopping at a corner, to catch my breath. _And I though I was the best of SHEILD. Anyone better 'ought to have ditched by this point._

I grab the gun out of my boot, firing a few bullets at his feet.

"That all you got? Some legend you are!" He calls out, trying to make me angry, knowing that's always a mistake in the spy business.

I do a quick roll, stopping in the center of the hallway; I get up and charge him, dodging bullets the entire way. I finally get to him and I quickly kick the gun out of his hands. I give him a quick punch to the chest.

Then I get the breath knocked out of me. He smirks, "Yeah, some legend."

I push my shoulder blades back, stretching. I look up at him. Huh, he's actually rather handsome. Not as handsome as Jamie…wait, where did _that_ come from?

I shake my head than grin up at him, "Sorry to disappoint, I didn't know I was a _legend._"

He raises an eyebrow and points his second gun (all SHEILD agents keep at least 3 guns on their person at all times) at my collarbone. If he shot me now, it would hurt like crazy and take me a while to die. Crap him.

I reeled my legs back suddenly and pushed them back, landing on my feet I grab his arm and twist it, hard. He lets out a small yelp and kicks me in the gut. I punch him again, but he catches it, and I smile creepily. I swing my legs up, hitting him hard in the face. He lands on the floor and I keep him down with my foot. Then handcuff him with his own handcuffs from his belt. I take his radio, also.

I bend down and whisper, "Some legend, huh?"

And I race back to the computer room, Jamie's already working on sifting through the files, checking everything. I take a seat and begin to help him.

"Found her!" He says gleefully.

I look at him questionably.

"She's on the other side of the building, in high-security."

"Then lets go."


	18. Wait

We get back in the vents and begin heading fro the other side of the building. It's slow and painstaking; we have to be extremely quiet. We examine every room along the way, taking in everything of importance, occasionally snapping a quick picture (I hid a camera in my boot. Don't ask.)

Eventually we find the hallway that Anna's in. Jamie couldn't get the exact room, so we'll have to check them all until we find her.

We crawl to the vents nearest to the cameras so we can disable them quickly.

We drop down from the vent when it's all clear. I land neatly on my toes. I quickly pick the lock in the first room to the right. I check the room. There are a few boxes, but not much. I quickly close the door, moving on to the next one. Nothing. I repeat the process several times, Jamie getting the left side of the long hallway.

He shakes his head, Nothing. Crap. Did they move her?

Jamie looks angry. He's muttering stuff like; "She supposed to be here…My fault...they said.."

I walk over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "You okay?"

He looks up startled, "Yeah, I'm ok. Anna might not be though."

"She'll be fine, a hurt or dead hostage is no hostage at all."

"You're right, let's keep looking."

I turn around, starting to head for the vent. Suddenly I hear a gunshot. I blink, and turn around. Everything seems to be in sloe motion. Jamie's holding his gun up. And my stomach is bleeding. I blink again. And everything speeds up again.

I yell, "TRAITOR!"

And I rush at him. He looks startled. He thinks I should be dead or at very least, passed out by now. WRONG! I'll be awake for a bit longer and it'll take a lot more than a bullet to the stomach to put me six feet under.

He tries to pull the trigger again but I grab the gun, and the bullet hit some of the doors.

I finally wrestle the gun away from him. He comes at me with the knife in his boot. _What the crap? What happened to him? _

I duck under his swinging arm. I search his eyes for any hint of craziness/insanity. None. His eyes are merely cold and determined. I feel pain spreading through my core, causing my movements to be stiff and painful. If you get hit in the leg or arm, the rest of you can still operate, but the core is a death sentence. Nothing works properly without it. Jamie knows this. An d I realize something. The others are probably traitors, too. The team could be infiltrated. I didge and kick, each movement feeling worse than the last. Each time I think that it's the one I'm going down on. But I keep going, because he lied to me, he found a way to side step my telepathy. And guess what, I'm angry about it. Razors come out of my knuckles again.

"I beat you once, I can do it again." I say through gritted teeth,

That's the last I can remember before I black out.

* * *

I wake up in a dark room, with only a sliver of light coming out from under the door. I remember Jamie's betrayal and the wound in my stomach. I look down and pull my shirt up slightly. It's been wrapped and treated. Well at least poor captive care isn't on the list of SHEILDS faults.

I stretch my shoulders a bit, than my arms, and finally my legs. Everything hurts like crazy.

Suddenly the door opens, the light temporarily blinds me. Jamie walks in, his eyes cold. I feel myself tense. I narrow my eyes.

"Guess the roles are switched now, huh?" He says icily.

The lights turn on.

"Ok, I'm going to ask a few questions and you're gonna answer me, ok?"

I glare.

He glares back at me. "Silent treatment?"

I glare some more, this time I picture him going up in flames.

He comes a bit closer. "Don't make me hurt you, we were friends, weren't we?" His tone is mocking and I desperately want to lash out, but I don't. It's better to remain silence rather than show that you are indeed, very breakable.

Just a little closer…

Come on, come on!

One step, than another. He's close enough, but I'm not taking chances.

I lunge forward, ignoring the raging pain in my core and transform, mid-air, into a huge Bengal Tiger.

I leap over him, clawing his back as I go, I shift my paw back into a hand to open the doo, and I'm off. I continue racing through the building, dodging bullets, as usual. Eventually I shift back into my familiar form and head into the vents. Jamie will no doubt have them search here. I shake my head. Stupid boy.

I crawl for a while and then stop to rest; my wound is quite literally killing me. I hear a sound, like someone's in the vents. I stay put, simply un able to move. I see Jamie's head appear and I curse under my breath. I pull out my gun and point it at his head. He doesn't stop. I cock it.

He doesn't stop.

"Wait!"


	19. Pain and Suspicions

I glare at him until he looks away. I search his face for any trace of deceit.

"What do you want?" I snarl.

He shifts his position a bit, keeping his hands where I can see them. He takes a deep breath and begins;

"I'm sorry."

"Well if that's all I think I'll just shoot you now."

He winces and slowly says, "It was the only way I could save Anna, they would have killed her if I didn't."

"Where the other agents lying too?"

"No."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying, Amethyst." He says evenly.

I continue to glare at him.

"I swear, I didn't want to I—"

I cut him off, "Well that's nice, but you shot me in the stomach. You know how hard it is to recover from that. If you didn't want me to get captured you would have shot me in the shoulder."

"I was given specific orders.."

I raise the gun, and he begins to talk faster. "I couldn't let her die! It's my fault she's in there, I had to do something!"

I blinked and lowered the gun slightly. I don't know why it hurt so much. That sentence. But it did. He chose his sister over me, he didn't trust me. He didn't think I could help him rescue her. And I'm jealous of a little kid. That's not fun incase you were wondering.

"Leave me alone." I say, my voice hoarse.

He doesn't say anything. Not one word. He could yell and scream, but he doesn't. I almost wish he did.

He awkwardly backs out then turns around, our faces bright red.

I put my gun away and sit there, tears welling up in my eyes. I hate this so much, I hate SHEILD I hate the way everything pushes me one way, when I have to go the other way. I hate the world right now.

Particularly Nick Fury.

He tore my life apart! Twice! UGH! I squirm in the vent, desperately wanting to kick or punch or destroy _something_! Anything!

I feel the hot tears fall down my face.

I wipe them away angrily and continue my crawl. My knees and palms are bruised.

I drop through the vent, my core crumples and so does the rest of me. I am a lump in the middle of the floor, vulnerable and struggling to get up, in to cover.

I close my eyes, focusing on the rhythm of my heart beating until it slows. I focus on my breathing next, taking deep breaths until my breathing is controlled. I focus n the blood rushing through my veins; I tense and relax the muscles in all the major groups, slowly regaining control over myself.

I force myself to stand, my eyes still closed. I open them. I put my left hand on my wound, and the other on my gun. And I begin the long trek to the Hanger.

My eyesight is beginning to go blurry, and a searing pain stretches out though my entire body. I look down and realize that my old wound had somehow opened up. The bullet must have torn it open, but I hadn't noticed until now. I sigh and lean heavily against the wall, resting. I feel myself slipping, but I practice the same technique I did earlier, isolating everything and taking control of myself. It doesn't help as much this time.

I see a figure in front of me, and I can't even tell if I know them or not. I raise my gun, my hands trembling. The gun falls.

I crumple. The figure catches me, and he (yes, he caught me, and my head was on HIS chest if that answers how I knew. Now buzz off, Nosy.)

He lowers me to the ground and picks me up bridal style and begins walking. I make out a pair of green eyes before I slip unconscious.

Line break

I wake up, blurry-eyed. I rub them a bit to clear them and look around. Jamie's sitting in the corner, and I'm lying by a machine gun. I smile at that. He remember that stupid little detail?

I sit up and laugh, despite the pain it causes my core. I laugh, and laugh and my cheeks start to hurt. I couldn't help it! I haven't laughed in days! I've been betrayed, shot, recued captured…and messed up the order of my adventure…but I haven't laughed. And so, Jamie, looking at me in the most hysterical way, comes over to see if I'm ok.

I'm still mad, but I can't stop laughing.

He really starts freaking out he's yelling at me and I'm nearly oblivious, I'm consumed in my laughter, and my cheeks and core are killing me.

"I-am ja-Ust La—UG—ing!" I manage to mumble between breaths.

"You're laughing? You gave me a heart attack cuz you were LAUGHING?" He says slowly.

He grins ear to ear.

I glare at him as well as I can with my eyes nearly shut from smiling so hard.

After a while, my giggle die down and we sit in silence. It's not particularly awkward, we're both just engulfed in thought.

"Why?" I ask suddenly and quietly.

"I thought that it was the only way."

"It wasn't."

"I know that now."

"Good." Then I add, "Cuz next time you shoot me you're dead, got it Bub?"

He gives me a lopsided grin, and says, "Not if I aim better."

I narrow my eyes, and he throws his hands up, and I say, "You won't get to shoot me again."

His grin fades and he nods. "I won't make the same mistake twice, I know who my allies are."

He curls back up in his corner and I lay back down by my machine gun (I called it!)

I stare at the ceiling for the longest time, thinking over everything. If that biy steps out of line once, I'm going to shoot him in the knees and leave him.

I sleep with one eye open.


End file.
